Forty years after his father, Alfred,
founded Taubman Centers Inc., Robert
“Bob” Taubman took the reins of the company as president and CEO in 1990 and
took it public in 1992.
Taubman Centers,
an international public real estate development company
that creates extraordinary retail environments for shoppers, merchants,
communities and
investors, has thrived under Taubman’s
leadership. That leadership was tested in
2002 with the attempt of a hostile takeover,
but Taubman and his employees fought off
the assault, and the company has continued to thrive; by the end of 2003, its stock
was trading at more than three times the
offer of the hostile takeover. Its stock generated a 50.8 percent return on investment
in 2006 and a compound annual average
return of 22 percent over the last 10 years.
Taubman understands that he must take
risks every day, but investing in a poor
property can have devastating results. So
to help minimize risks, Taubman is very
selective in which projects the company
takes on, and only about 5 percent of deals
presented to the company are executed.
And while competitors focused on consolidation and growth through acquisition, Taubman reduced his company’s risk
by recycling properties, a process in
which he develops new properties while
prior ones are sold, allowing the company
to recycle its capital to fuel its development pipeline.
Moving forward, Taubman Centers is targeting a long-term growth rate of 8 percent
to 10 percent. And to promote continued
growth, it has formed Taubman Asia, a
wholly owned subsidiary with projects
under way in South Korea and Macao.
HOW TO REACH: Taubman Centers Inc., (248) 258-6800 or www.taubman.com